Matherson full faction conference-All outfits invited.

don't worry Negator. You have help. We will get this knocked out, and get a good agenda and structure for the meeting.

Sorry about not responding quicker. I had to go 11 days without internet while taking care of some family stuff out of state. However did I survive??

I, or another rep from Blue Lions, will be there. I'll update as soon as I have confirmation on who it is.

Thanks.

In the mean time folks, do me a favor. Roll an alt and play during prime time on each faction. Pay attention to the following:

*which outfit
*how they differ in operation to yours (obviously running a public platoon is different then ops nights)
*whether there was quality communication going on
*how many players in said platoon are in outfits

I've done so and played with a number of you for quite a while now, as well as just run with all 3 factions zergs. I'd like to think my opinions thus far are based in reality but it would be nice to get more perspective.

1st Terran Rangers shall be informed of this event. Eithier I or our commanding officer Derrosabaron will confirm asap

On behalf of Sunder Military Gaming. I would like to personally attend this event. SMG supports any movement that will bring our community together. Please feel free to contact me directly if there is anything we can do to support this event.

Dathnic
Sunder military gaming
PS2 commander
Sunderhq.com

I will be attending on behalf of the 1st Terran Rangers.

Still working through doing one on ones with outfit leads before deciding on anything concrete. More to follow.

So, seeing as I will be representing a much smaller outfit than the main "power players" here, I will mostly be there to listen and learn more than actually talk much. So, I felt just leaving a small note here would be better than confusing the process later, just to make sure that someone will be bringing it up. That being said, I believe leadership is a very large and relevant problem that CAN be fixed by players, and is relevant to the fun aspect of the game, to fourth factioners, and of course helping with the ridiculous lag issues most face right now.

I think in respect to leadership; skill, inter-activeness with the platoon, and tactics past pointing them in a simple direction should be discussed. For example, after running with many platoons on all three factions, one too many times has a PL not noticed the last sunderer was gone until it was five minutes too late, or a gal drop was performed with no spawn on the ground (or even squad spawn beacons for that matter) to prevent the drop from being a burnout because everyone died. In addition to that, not many use squad dedicated transport (alpha gal, bravo gal, etc), nor do many leaders designate targets per squad (bravo secure B point, Charlie take outpost, etc), and when actively engaging in a battle most leaders go quiet, they don't designate past "we're all in the general area we're supposed to be so go kill", there is no calling of targets, or platoon intel, or anything like that (if it makes sense).

Last on that list, would be way too many leaders seem to answer a difficult fight with "SEND MOAR PPLZ", which big fights are fun...but not when you have 150+ on a single base/hex causing lag issues for all. Basically, I would like one of the main "talkers" of this meeting to bring up more squad gameplay. For example, keeping it around a squad sized group per small base, then bringing in the platoon for those larger bases. I'd like to know other leader's thoughts on what if we spread out an ACTUAL battle front-line with multiple squads at multiple bases fighting enemy squads, instead of two platoons fighting two platoons at one base. You guys get what I mean, I want to see what you guys would talk about concerning making squads the general workforce of the factions instead of platoons, and only bringing in more when it is absolutely needed.

And about the fourth factioners, after running quite a bit with my Alts on TR and NC, I really feel a different leading system especially for them, would help encourage players to stay/rejoin those particular factions. Right now, running in a TR or NC platoon in any but the particular major outfit's "primetimes" is something akin to chaos. While I believe VS has the same problem, it just seems much more prevalent of a problem within those two other factions (though this is probably just due to the recent problems within their factions with low pop).

One should also bring up the fact that the recent population imbalance also leaves the TR and NC at quite a heavy CERT handicap. On my VS, I can make 1000 CERTS a day without a problem at all, without even farming. On TR and NC, unless they are CERT farming, its damn near impossible for them to make that much, especially considering in every fight they get in, they are almost always outnumbered, meaning they get killed so fast they don't even make many CERTS from killing enemies (not even counting the ridiculous amount of CERTS VS gains from those stupid alerts).

And yeah, I have quite a few opinions on many other topics, but I figure you guys will be talking about whatever I would say anyway. The one thing I did want to get my two cents about was just leadership, and trying to stay away from "4531987245397 people attack here" mentalities as well as anything else I spammed up there. Sorry, if the post annoys anyone.

I'd just like to say that the difference in length of the posts between everyone else's and your's just made my OCD go haywire. I'm starting to twitch.

Noted and points already on the agenda.

Let me add my 0.02 Certs.

Due to my working schedule, I mostly play past midnight EST. This is when the world VS population is well above 60%, which situation lasts until morning. It often translates into a VS population of 80% or more on a continent where an alert is taking place, the bulk of the NC and TR populations being on the other two continents, ghost-capping for the most part.

I do play the alerts no matter what, and in principle, I have no problem having to engage in battles in such an environment, provided there are decently organized squads and platoons. Frustrated by the ever-growing defection of my NC fellows during alerts, I tried to start playing earlier in the evening a few times last and this week. I also wanted to check if the population imbalance on this server was constant (I also play on the Connery server, which appears to be relatively well-balanced 24/7). I believe this timeframe is what people call "prime time". For someone who has been playing exclusively late at night, it was, well, day and night, as many more platoons and squads were operating which made the battles closer to what I believe they were meant to be by design: strategic and tactical. Personally, I have not encountered, or have been a part of, the steam-roller phenomenon during "prime-time".

Interestingly, I did not feel the population imbalance mattered that much during this "prime time" (it was less pronounced anyways), but my understanding is that to some (most!) amongst us, it is still a problem in order to enjoy the game. I believe this begs the question of what people expect from this game to begin with. Last night, when I asked through the region chat why people were still engaged in areas that were completely irrelevant to the alert, one reply was that they did not want to intervene unless they were certain to improve their kill/death ratios. I was startled, as I thought this game was more about strategies and tactics put to the test by the players' abilities to carry them out in the field, rather than scoring good KDRs (besides, providing support for the team is as important as landing a kill shot in this game). While this is just one example, it is very illustrative of certain gaps in perception that may get in the way of the commanders' ability to attain their objectives. I, for one, am enjoying just trying to reach said objectives collectively. If they are reached, I am happy; if it is not, well, I'll try harder next time. It's a game. BTW, the skills acquired in the process are more important to me than the certs and the xp. It's still a game.

While the extreme imbalance late at night does not allow the lower population factions to ever win any alerts, I have seen a few that ended in a "draw" (usually alerts that require capping three installations). This is especially true on Indar, undoubtedly due to the implementation of the lattice system. It just imposes a different approach and organization, not the least of which that rogue elements have no other choices than to be funneled to where the action takes place. So, in some situations, the over-population issue is mitigated. I am not saying that the lattice should be implemented on all three continents, though.

Personally, I think an NC-TR alliance (at least late at night, say, from 12:00-2:00 am to 6:00-8:00 am) would make things a little less extreme population-wise in the shortest-term. There are already options in the settings that allow different factions to be labeled with different colors (red-colored labels are assigned to both enemy factions by default). All the NC and TR players would need to do is assign the blue-colored labels mutually (it is as if the devs had anticipated inter-faction cooperation). Commanders from both factions could communicate via dedicated TS channels, unless there is a possibility to create an outfit that encompasses both factions, in which case the outfit channel could serve that purpose (I think there is something called a user channel, but i have no clue what its purpose is).

In the end, I believe that educating the players, especially about coordination, is the only solution, in the long-term.

The date is getting pretty close, (a week after my birthday ^^). Hope you've figured out a time that works for most of the outfit representatives.

21 JULY, 5PM EST. Those of you i have not contacted, please post if this time does not work.

Teamspeak. Server being decided on.

7PM EST tomorrow I have a few folks showing up in my TS for some informal discussion. Feel free to message me here/in game if youd like to show up.

Negator, NegatorNC, Neg0tiat0r

Ill see if I can make it

send me a PM on reddit with the time and date Negator

Ecaobia from the 903rd will attend. Try to send him a tell in-game to give him information.

Decoy1 (KOS)

I came across the post, negator. Ill be there representing KOS if I can. Either way there will be a KOS rep at the meeting.

21 JULY, 5PM EST is this the set date and time?

For the moment, unless people take issue with it. This week all week I'll be continuing small group meetings for any that want their voices heard prior to the main event.